Tantric Work

Tantra is a tradition of lifestyle practices and beliefs with orgins in the religions of India, such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. There are many definitions of tantra from the perspectives of its various followers and scholars.

Tantra is generally understood as being distinct within the broader Vedic traditions of India. "Veda" comes from the Sanskrit word for knowledge, and Tantra is one of many ways to learn about oneself and the universe.

Sexual aspects of tantra are a major part of the popular Western understanding of Tantra. These aspect likely emerged as a practical means to generate transformative bodily fluids within the Hindu system of Tantra. Such fluids, known as jing or essence, constituted a sacred offering to the deities. Many sexual rites are known to have existed in early forms of Tantra, including those in which the transmission of bodily fluids between a young female escort and a male initiate were understood as a strengthening and realizing experience. Thus, originally the sexual power of the female in Tantric sects was paramount and the traditional was a worship of goddess in physical form.

It was understood that the conjoining of two beings without separation and through the tantric sexual rituals, it would culminate in a sublime experience of enlightened awareness. According to Tantric texts, the three purposes of sex are for pleasure, liberation and lastly, procreation. For those practitioners seeking liberation from the physical world, the frictional orgasm was eschewed for a higher ecstasy of embrace and union between two souls. The rituals of Tantric sexual acts involved elaborate purification rituals and energy balancing rites. A practitioner's kundalini energy rises upon union resulting in the dissolving of individual identities into the unity of cosmic consciousness.

As Tantra has become more popular in the West it has undergone a major transformation, which has made Modern Tantra, or the New Age interpretations of Tantra, more properly called Neotantra, different from the original Tantric traditions of India. For many modern readers, "Tantra" has become a synonym for "spiritual sex" or "sacred sexuality", a belief that sex in itself ought to be recognized as a sacred act which is capable of elevating its participants to a more sublime spiritual plane. Though Neotantra may adopt many of the concepts and terminology of Indian Tantra, it often omits one or more of the following; the traditional reliance on guruparampara (the guidance of a guru), extensive meditative practice, and traditional rules of conduct -- both moral and ritualistic.